Her Radiance
by downpours
Summary: He had met her when she was asking about a simple Fox Mask, and next thing he knew she had already clumsily broken his items.


**Her Radiance**

_**There's a saying said from the elders that the Fox Mask that is sold in festivals are supposed to bring you good love and fortune. A certain blacksmith never really believed in these kinds of things, and that's why he tried to sell the fox mask to anyone who asked.**_

"What's it called?" The light voice of a young acolyte asked. Her face was amused at the mask she was holding in her hand. The blacksmith gave a light shrug as he stared at her, his eyes looking a bit blank. He was examining her appearance, something about her seemed familiar. She had light brown hair with matching brown eyes, and her face was soft, her voice as light as an angel's.

Where had he seen her before? Maybe in his fantasies, he thought.

He suddenly snapped out of his reverie and looked at the ground, his face red with embarrassment. He didn't mean to stare. Lucky for him, the young acolyte hadn't noticed. She had just blinked at him and tilted her head a bit with confusion.

"It's called a fox mask," he replied. He was seated on the brick ground of Prontera, amidst his vends. The acolyte's face lightened up and she sat down beside him in an excited manner.

"It's so cute…!" She exclaimed, brushing her fingers over it. "It would have been a great gift for my older brother…"

"Would have been?" The blacksmith inquired, happy to be catching on some random conversation by this girl, yet he didn't know why.

"Yeah." The acolyte brought the mask up against the sunlight to get a better view of the carefully painted symbols on it. "He passed away last month… but he really loved handicrafts like this."

Just at that moment, the blacksmith regretted he had even asked.

"I guess I'll just get it for myse—" She looked down at the dainty price tag attached to it. The acolyte started laughing sheepishly and placed the mask back in the blacksmith's arms. "Err, I guess I'll just look around, and, err—"

"What's wrong?" He asked with a chuckle, even though he had already realized her predicament.

"Nothing, n-nothing…"

"Here," He placed it in her small hands and smiled. "Think of it as a sort of apology."

"Apology for what?"

"An apology for asking about your brother."

"No!" She exclaimed, trying to shove it back into his arms in a rapid motion. As an instinct, he backed away his arms, causing the girl to hit nothing and lose her balance. Everyone looked around as the clashing of objects were heard, and the people of Prontera looked over to a young acolyte being held up by a blacksmith by the shoulders, and everything breakable in his vends were now destroyed.

"I'm sooo sorry!" The acolyte shrieked, standing up and waving her arms like a fool. "I didn't mean it, I swear!"

_**And he thought that was the last time he would see the clumsy but radiant acolyte. He was wrong, though. The very next week he had seen her again inside the Pronteran Castle. Although, something was different this time…**_

"It's you!" She gasped, holding her hands over her mouth. Her face immediately went red with embarrassment, remembering the first time that had met.

He chuckled. "Congratulations on turning into a priestess."

"Oh…" She blinked and looked at her new uniform. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Tiiiie!" A knight came running up to them. He was panting when he finally reached them. "Tie, Lious wants to… see… you."

Tie, the blacksmith, frowned at the knight. What terrible timing, just when he met her again. "Alright."

"I see you've met his sister, though."

Tie gaped at the priestess. "You're the younger sister of Tie?"

"Well… most people call me Khaln, but, yeah." She laughed lightly, sending his heart thumping. The knight looked at the blacksmith, then at the priestess, then back again. "Why do you seem so surprised?"

"No… nothing…"

"He's surprised," The knight started. A knowing smirk was on his face. "Because it's been all over the news that Lious's sister will soon be wed to the ruler of Al De Baran. Tie has a crush on you, obviously, so—"

"Shut up, Cruz."

Khaln looked back and forth between the both of them. What were they talking about?

_**And so, even though he saw her almost everyday starting then, he never really talked to her. Rumors were going around that the grand wedding of Lious's sister and Al de Baran's ruler were fast approaching. Being heartbroken was something he had never experienced before, and so he didn't know that heartbroken was his current predicament. He just said…**_

"I think I'm ill." Tie said to Cruz. His head was spinning, and there was a gut feeling in his stomach. He clutched his stomach, not knowing why exactly it was like that.

"Maybe you're getting you're monthly period."

"Will you just shut up when people talk to you?"

"See? Here comes the mood swings. Hey, maybe you're just pregnant."

_**Yes, he would never admit he was in love. Not even when he passed the priestess by the halls of the castle or the streets of Prontera and she stopped to chat with him for a while. She was always so radiant and cheerful, and he tried to avoid being sucked in even more to the black hole of doom, which optimists preferred to call "love".**_

"Look, look!" Khaln said, practically pulling the blacksmith over to her. "Look at this adorable wolf puppy my sister gave me…!"

She was hugging it affectionately, and the blacksmith was smiling at her. "What's the name?"

"I don't know." The priestess replied, blinking. "But now that you mention it…"

He was caught by surprise when she gently took his hands and placed the baby wolf in his hands. "Geh!" He said softly as he tried to cradle it the best way he could, and it licked his face playfully.

"Oh, that's so cute…!"

He blushed crimson red and gulped the knot in his throat.

"Baby Tie."

"Excuse me?"

"His name's Baby Tie!" The priestess laughed. "You're the only person I've seen he's liked that much! Well, that is, after me."

_**He didn't want to admit it, but sooner or later, he just had to.**_

"I think I'm falling in love…" He buried his face in his hands.

"Just tell her." Cruz told his friend. He seemed serious, which wasn't like him.

"She's engaged, for hell's sake."

"Tie…" Cruz grasped his friend's shoulders tightly and looked at him straight in the eye. "If you never tell Khaln how you feel, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. Before she puts on that wedding dress and walks down that aisle… Tie, you have to say something! She might be the one, for _hell's sake_."

Even though the knight seemed corny saying all that, Tie realized he was right.

_**He didn't know when to tell her, but everything creeps up to you in the most unexpected moments…**_

"Tie, is that you?" A familiar voice inquired, as she walked up to him. "What are you doing here? It's two in the morning!"

The streets of Prontera were silent and dark, but Tie was staring at the gushing water of the fountain when Khaln had caught him.

"I can ask you the same question." He said to her.

She smiled, and stood beside him, her chin leaning on her hands, which were balanced on the sides of the fountain's walls. The water was glistening with the moonlight. Simply beautiful.

"I've been thinking…" She started. "I couldn't go to sleep…"

"What's wrong?"

Khaln seemed to contemplate for it a bit, and her expression was something Tie had never seen her wear before. She was sad and seemed to be on the verge of crying, her brown eyes filling up with tears wanting to get escape and trickle down the soft skin of her pretty face. "I've been thinking about the wedding…"

The all too familiar knot crept it's way back to Tie's chest.

"I mean—it might be a huge mistake… what if… I don't know, I've just been thinking that it could change so many things I don't want to be changed."

"It's a wedding." Tie stated, hiding what he was really feeling. "It could change everything."

"Well, yeah…"

He blinked as she turned to him, wearing a smile that was so obviously forced that he realized something he hadn't before. _Most_ of her smiles were forced.

"Do you know the legend of this fountain?" She grinned.

"Hm?"

"They say," she said, pointing at the huge fountain that looked so alive in the middle of a sleeping town. "If a man confesses his love in this very place, then the girl that he confesses to is someone he will end up with."

_Maybe I should confess, then. Haha. Funny._ Tie thought sarcastically.

"And this is the very place that man proposed to my sister."

Silence.

Only the rushing water could be heard.

"Your sister?"

Khaln blinked with confusion and tilted her head in that adorable way she did. "Yes?"

"You're not getting married?"

The eyes of the priestess widened in surprise, and she backed away swiftly. "No! Why would you think I would?"

The blacksmith seemed embarrassed and he scratched the back of his head, staring at the ground. He never did ask about the wedding. All he knew was that there were rumors that the _sister_ of Lious would be getting married. "Sorry…"

Khaln tried to stifle her laughs, but she just ended up grasping the side of the fountain for support. "You… you really… haha, thought _I _ was the one getting married? Tie…! Haha!"

He grinned at her, his face bright red.

"Khaln."

She looked up at him, her cheeks rosy from all the laughing.

"Does Cruz know that it's not you getting married?"

"Tie," She smiled sheepishly, just like when she had broken all this vends the first time they met. "I think everyone knows."

_Blood will spill._

_**Love can make you seem like a fool any chance it gets.**_

"I can't believe you thought it was me."

"Don't rub it in…"

Khaln stifled another chuckle, and she fiddled with her hands. She was sitting on the railing of the fountain, the light sprinkles of water idly touching her back in a freshening way. Beside her was Tie, who still looked embarrassed.

"But, still—"

Tie scratched the back of his neck again. This was embarrassing, and she just wouldn't let it go.

"Tie?"

"What?"

"Do you remember the first day we met?" She blinked her hazel eyes at him with a curious expression. The blacksmith blinked back. Where did that come from? He didn't know whether to take it seriously. They had know each other for months now, and to hear a question like that was so out of the blue.

"Yeah." He replied. "You were the acolyte who wrecked my stuff."

She pouted at him and kicked his shin lightly. "Tie!"

"Whaaat?"

"Hug me, Tie!" She grinned, stretching out her arms in front of her. "I'm sorry I laughed at you."

He simply stared at her.

"Tiiiiie…!"

The blacksmith shrugged and wrapped his arms around her with a sigh. Though he acted apathetic, his face was bright red. "You're like a kid, you know that?"

"I know."

The light feel of her warm body against his chest made him stifle a gulp. The all-familiar knot was starting to return to his stomach, but this time, instead of pain it felt warm and welcoming. The blacksmith started to break his arms free of her when she suddenly grasped his collar and buried her face to the crane of his neck.

"Tie, I think I'm falling love with you."

Splash.

"W-what…" The priestess said, trying to stand up straight. Yet the weight of the water against her drenched clothes kept her down, plus the surprise from the fall. "Tie…!"

"S-sorry!" Tie blurted out, his eyes wide as he tried to help her up; instead, they both fell back in the water from their actions.

"Just forget it!" Khaln said quickly, standing up on her own and getting out of the fountain. "I was kidding, honest."

"Khaln…" Tie started, getting up after her and grabbing her wrist.

"What?" She spun around quickly, almost knocking him out. She was very clumsy. No, they were both very clumsy.

The priestess was taken by surprise as the blacksmith suddenly kissed her gently on the lips, holding her shoulders for support. She brought up her hands and placed them sheepishly on his chest.

He smiled against her soft lips. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For liking the fox mask."

She raised her eyebrow and looked at him in disbelief. What the heck was he talking about at a time like this?

**Some people believe in love at first sight, those who don't think its crap. Tie, the blacksmith, was one of those who didn't believe in it. But that was only because he wasn't sure he was in love until she made the move.**

Cruz raised his eyebrow at the blacksmith and crossed his arms.

"She made the move? I swear you're a girl."

**The End**


End file.
